ACCORDING to Planning Consultant Vicky L. Ortega of Havas Anthropology, members of the earlier generational demographic (read: Gen X and older) may have problems dealing with millennials.
“Maybe because their logic is different,” Ortega told the BusinessMirror’s Y2Z during the recent Vital Healthcare Conference 2018 in Makati City, which aimed to help health-care marketing decision-makers develop an innovative mindset amid a changing landscape in the Philippine health-care marketing industry.
She said the logic, approach and the way millennials react to the world are very different from their noncontemporaries who still insist on seeing the world in a certain way.
“Millennials look at the world for what it is. And it’s [one that has evolved through] technology. In fact, it changes every time there’s a new phone technology launched,” she explained.
“There are certain things which, for the millennials, are no longer viable in this world,” Ortega went on to say.
Business over career
WHEN it comes to work and profession, the Havas Entropically executive shared that the younger ones believe “there’s really…no such thing as a career.”
“But what they really want is [to] have a business to sustain their lifestyle, and it is important for them to constantly learn skills.”
For millennials, she observed that they may have different starting points in life and learning, “[but] it’s all about connecting the dots and putting them all together.”
Ortega, together with Global CEO Maria Garrido of Havas X and Digital Director Rachael McLoughlin of H4B Manchester, were guest speakers during the Vital Healthcare Marketing Conference. All three female executives agreed that the millennial generation is creating a significant impact in the world as well as the health-care industry.
DIY on health care
“PEOPLE nowadays are more personally involved in managing their own health—especially the millennials—compared to our experience in the past when there was more reliance on health-care professionals. I think the dynamic has shifted and people are more involved today,” Garrido explained.
“They have this ‘do-it-yourself’ approach where they look at all information on the Internet and try to diagnose themselves. They look up for the right food, exercise, home remedies and everything else in between. It is only after they fail that they actually go to the hospital or the emergency room,” the CEO expounded.
Ortega went further: “And in the ER, they want a quick fix. They want a medicine that would make them feel better instantly. They will only see specialists if they are really in a bad condition. On top of that and other situations, they don’t want to be judged. They want to be presented with choices; they want to be part of the decision-making.”
‘Interesting generation’
FOR her part, McLoughlin explained: “It’s an interesting generation. Technology has exponentially changed the landscape, and the experience of adapting to technology is the real core of what a millennial is. The millennial health-care providers—doctors, nurses and experts—could definitely help the health-care industry.”
For the H4B director, technology will come in and support the health-care provider to enable a collaborative partnership with the patient, “[but] not to patronize the patient; not to tell the patient what to do; but to support the patient. It becomes a motivational and a mutual partnership between these two elements.”